Fear and Numbness
by Sarin-sama
Summary: **Way AU setting - decided that I'll make this full blown story** Everything from her fingertips to her heart felt completely and utterly lifeless. There was nothing left for her here. She just wanted to get away – far, far away where the absorbent numbness could no longer reach her. And all it would take was one small step. One insignificant little step forward.
1. Chapter 1

**I'm not quite sure what this is yet - maybe a OneShot, or maybe not - but i got the idea and ran with it. It's AU with probably some OOCness but i don't think it's so much so that it's hard to read lol So read it and tell me what you think :)**

**(Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece)**

**Fear and Numbness**

She felt numb. Everything from her fingertips to her heart felt completely and utterly lifeless. There was nothing left for her here. She just wanted to get away – far, far away where the absorbent numbness could no longer reach her. And all it would take was one small step. One step forward would bring her to this far, far away place. It would all be over if she could just take that one little, insignificant step.

Wind whipped about her body as she stood on the ledge of her high school. It wasn't necessarily that she wanted to do this here of all places, but this was the highest place she could think of that was relatively close to her home.

Well…home might not be the best word. Building that she lived in was more accurate, or place she slept, maybe. Whatever you wanted to call it, home was most definitely incorrect. It was not a home. There were no warm and fuzzy feelings for her there, no happiness waiting for her to come back, no family to care for her.

She was alone.

Alone.

Always alone.

It had been that way since she was a child. She had no parents, so she was shifted from relative to relative, and each new place she got sent to never wanted to keep her for long. She wasn't _their_ kid, so why should they put up with her? Moving from place to place, until finally she decided she would just run away and live on her own.

Twelve is no age to be living on the streets, but she always managed to find a way to persevere. She learned how to survive, how to steal, how to cheat, and how to screw people over – but that wasn't living.

What she wanted – because even vicious and heartless street-rats like her had dreams – was to learn as much as possible and become an archeologist. Granted, that was a very odd dream to have, but living a cold and hard life hadn't taken away her love of learning. Since childhood, learning had been something she had loved. Reading about faraway places, breathing in all the information she could find about famous and not-so-famous explorers, thinking about nothing but becoming like those who had dedicated their lives to uncovering ancient civilizations and the like.

She wanted that. Robin wanted the adventure, and the excitement, and the wonderful experiences, and until recently, she thought it could be possible.

Despite living on the streets, she managed to enroll herself into junior high and high school by faking a few important documents and getting a few people who owed her favors to act as her parents. She learned as much as she could about everything, and never passed up an opportunity that presented itself to her. So now she was a junior in high school with grades at the top of her class…she was so close to completing this first step on her way towards her dream but the world, it seemed, didn't want her to have even the smallest bit of happiness.

She made a mistake. A huge mistake.

Robin got involved with some pretty bad people – and we're not talking petty crooks and thieves this time. The head honcho of the area had taken an interest in her and gave her an offer she couldn't refuse.

His street name was Crocodile – and it was said that if you ever found out his real name, you would be dead within the hour. He's got a hand in everything (or maybe you should say hook because in place of one of his hands was a sharpened hook, like the villain in those fairytales). Politics, drugs, trafficking, gang relations – you name it, Crocodile's got it under his control.

When he approached Robin – offered her a nice apartment and plenty of funds to keep her going – she couldn't refuse…even if it was in exchange for her services that she'd acquired over the years.

She started down in the low ranks. Even with her local notoriety, she started from the bottom. Robin followed her orders and did what she was told and eventually made it pretty far up the food chain.

But now she was in over her head.

She was never one to care for others – hell she could honestly say that she never thought about others unless it was how she could use them to her advantage – but what Crocodile was asking her to do this time was too much.

She was a renowned thief and became an expert at sending the boss's messages, but she couldn't become a murderer. She was not a killer.

She refused.

So now, here she was, standing on the ledge of her high school building, looking at her way out.

She knew that she couldn't run – Crocodile could find her, no matter where in the world she tried to hide. This was her only option.

The worst part of everything was that damned numbness. Her years on the streets and on her own had taught her not to feel. Not to have any emotion. Not to care.

And now it was biting her in the ass.

She felt nothing, even though she was one step away from ending her miserable life. Her heart was just as dead as the night was, uncaring that the number of beats it had left were quickly dwindling.

Her peculiar blue eyes glanced upward, but found that the skies were overcast and ugly. There weren't any stars out tonight, nor was the moon bright enough to shine through the damned marine layer. As much as she hated those clouds, they described her perfectly. It was as though some of those thick obscuring clouds had found their way into her body, blocking off her ability to feel.

Wind pressed lightly against her body, making her loose clothes and hair ripple about freely. The wind only helped the numbness – working on her fingers and physical body, making it match her insides. She was numb inside and out.

Robin looked down.

"It'll be easy," she said to herself, her voice devoid of real emotion. Her voice sounded akin to those fake ones that you always heard in those late night infomercials, she mused to herself. "Just one step forward."

Her barefoot left the rough concrete of the school's roof and hovered over the weightless air in front of her.

"Do you think you can fly?" a boyish voice suddenly broke through the numb and lifeless night.

One of the skills that Robin prided herself in was never losing her composure – but she had to admit, that curious voice had almost caught her off guard. Her foot quickly retreated from the open air and came back to the concrete ledge to rest beside her other one.

She looked over her shoulder and saw none other than the famous freshman, Luffy sitting cross-legged beside the door that led back into the school. Even in the murky night she could tell that it was him – the whole school knew his large grin and that overly optimistic face. He was just a mere freshman, but somehow managed to catch the eye of even the older juniors and seniors who usually didn't associate with the younger students unless they had to.

This Luffy kid had quite the reputation – making friends with the weirdest of kids, picking fights with the toughest thugs, causing a ruckus everywhere he went, failing every class he took – but no matter what he did, he always had that stupid smile on his face.

That smile made Robin angry. What could he possibly have to smile about in this town? This place sucked the souls out of everyone in it, no matter what their station in life was. So why the hell should he get to smile like that when there was so much goddamned misery surrounding us everywhere we looked?

"You should leave," She said with her emotionless voice.

He just smiled and stared at her, "Why should I do that? It's nice up here."

She felt her composure starting to crack – this kid annoyed her to no end. "Fine then – just don't interfere." It wasn't her fault if he happened to see something he couldn't un-see…maybe seeing her battered body hit the pavement below would wipe that smile from his face.

Robin turned her head to face forward once again. She took a slow breath to help rebuild her composure and then let it out, just as slowly. She let her eyes close, not wanting the last thing she sees to be the ugly city, and tried to imagine one of the pictures from her travel book. Somewhere surrounded by green forests and towering mountains. A vast blue sky that housed billions of stars once the sun passed the horizon. A place where there was no one but herself. Beautiful solitude.

Her heart gave an odd pang, but the numbness quickly swallowed it. She wasn't allowed to have feelings. She didn't deserve it. She had been mistaken – unwanted street-rats like her didn't get to have dreams. She wasn't worthy of hope, joy, or happiness. She didn't deserve easy or safe. Forget about bonds or friendships – and don't even think the word _love_.

None of that concerned worthless street-rats like her.

Once again, her foot left the cement ledge that surrounded the roof of the building. It was just a small little edge – maybe a foot tall or less and about six inches wide that ran around the roof of the school.

Just one step and it could be finished.

"You know – I know you," that same boyish voice spoke again, this time sounding a little closer than before.

Robin let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, "Well good for you."

"You're always alone in the library – I don't go there because it's boring, but I always see you through the window." Robin heard the notorious freshman's shuffling steps as he came closer and closer.

"Why does that concern you?" she asked coldly.

He gave a peculiar laugh, "_Shishishi_, I guess it doesn't – but my friend Franky is in your class as well and he says you've got the best grades."

"And?" Robin sighed. He was interrupting her plans for such trivial things as this?

"Why do you study and read so much? It doesn't look like much fun."

She pinched the bridge of her nose, "Someone who doesn't care about his grades, wouldn't understand."

"_Shishishi_, but you should still answer me. Why do you study so hard?"

Robin sighed again, but continued to face forward with her eyes closed, "It doesn't matter anymore. I realized my mistake – all of my studying has proven to be useless now."

"Why?" he asked, his boyish voice sounding like a curious five year old.

She didn't know why she even bothered to answer, but Robin found the words leaving her lips without her consent, "Because sometimes, no matter how hard you work for or want something, the world tells you 'No'."

Robin heard him hum in thought, "Hmm, but if you stop fighting, you'll prove the world right."

Robin let out an annoyed breath and repeated, "This has nothing to do with you – as you can see, I have somewhere important to be."

Incredibly, the grinning idiot laughed again, "_Shishishi_, so you're going to jump just because you were told 'no'? You're funny."

Her brows creased, but she didn't rise to his bait – she kept facing forward no matter how much she wanted to turn and start arguing with him. "If I don't do it myself, someone else will probably come for me shortly – and their way of sending me to the next life won't be so quick."

His chuckling laughter stopped and he asked with a strangely solemn voice, "Someone's trying to kill you?"

Robin sighed again, "They will once they realize that I've disobeyed orders…I became one of Crocodile's dogs, but this time I didn't play fetch. Once he sees that my target is still alive and breathing, he'll send someone after me immediately. Crocodile does not tolerate disobedience."

The famous freshman stayed silent for once, but Robin could tell that he was thinking. She would have genuinely laughed if she remembered how – how ironic that the day she decides to disappear, someone finally takes notice of her. And now he was even thinking seriously because of something she said despite the boy's undoubted difficulty with serious thought and logic.

Finally Luffy let out a breath, "So why don't you just fight him? That always works for me when I have a problem."

This time Robin couldn't keep her gaze forward. She spun around and stared indignantly at the idiotic boy, "Crocodile is hardly someone you or I could fight. He's got hordes of followers and lackeys that will obey his every command – how the hell am I supposed to oppose that?"

He tapped at his chin, like you always saw in the cartoons, and then finally broke out into one of his famous ear-to-ear grins, "So let me handle it – all I gotta do is beat him up."

Robin just stared at him. How could he say something to bold and reckless with that silly grin on his face? What was wrong with this damn kid?

"I know you have a reputation for getting into fights and beating the odds, but Crocodile isn't one of those mindless thugs that you and your little crew of friends get into it with. He's the ring-leader of this whole god-forsaken town – he won't just beat the shit out of you. You'll end up dead in a ditch somewhere, but that won't be the end of it. Crocodile will go after any family, friends, or even acquaintances and probably burry them along with you. Kids like you shouldn't even joke about things like that."

His smile lessened and his large brown eyes suddenly focused seriously on Robin, "You're just as much a kid as I am – so what makes it okay for you to be involved in this? Is two years more of life really that much of a difference?"

"It's not age that makes you a kid – it's what you've gone through in life that takes away that title. I was never privileged enough to be considered a kid, as so, I have lived a life that's taken me farther away from that small title." Robin sighed and shifted her weight – she was still standing on the ledge, but now her back was facing the freefall if she chose to lean backwards.

Luffy kept up his serious gaze that looked unfamiliar on his facial features. "So jumping off the high school building is going to fix all your problems?"

"In a way, yes. I won't have to wait for Crocodile to come for me and deal with me. I won't have to worry anymore about whether or not I can accomplish my dream. I won't have to succumb to stealing and backstabbing to survive anymore. By dying on my own terms, I'll save a lot of people from being troubled – I won't be here anymore to betray them."

Luffy crossed his tightly muscled arms over his chest, seemingly immune to the small chill of the night air despite being clad in shorts and a sleeveless red shirt. "If you're worried about other people getting hurt because of you, why don't you just stop hurting them?"

Robin gave a humorless smile, "I don't know any other way to live. This is what I've been doing since I was young – taking advantage of others in order to benefit myself. That's who I am, despite any notions I have of wanting to change. People like me can't change – it's impossible."

"I don't understand you…" Luffy sighed and scratched his head, "If you want to change, just do it. If you want something, go after it. If you can't do something alone, ask for help."

"Life isn't that simple," Robin said. She let her eyes close. The numbness had lessened for a bit, but the fog inside of her heart was starting to thicken once again. Ask for help? How could she possibly do that? She'd only cause more problems for more people, and even if she wanted to do that, who would she ask? She had no one. No family, no friends, not even acquaintances. Just Crocodile and all the people she's screwed over in the last five years or so. There was no one to help her, even if she did ask for help.

"You're wrong. Life is that simple – and killing yourself because you think you have no other choice is stupid. So what if this Crocodile guy kills you? If you die because you decided to go after something you want, you should be happy. It would be better to die for something important than to die because you gave up before you had to."

His words acted like an arrow and pierced straight through her heart. It managed to fend off some of the numbness for a split second, and Robin found herself wavering.

Maybe…maybe she didn't have to die…maybe her dream of adventure and excitement could still be possible…

Robin slowly opened her eyes again, and stared blankly at the raven-haired boy.

"Don't you want to live? Don't you want to fight for what's important to you? Don't you want to prove the world wrong for telling you 'no'?"

Robin's lower lip started to tremble.

_What is this? What's wrong with me? Am I seriously starting to cry because of this kid's words?_

But that wasn't right – this boy technically wasn't a kid either. She could tell by the ferocity with which he spoke these crucial words. He was like her – he had been stripped of the title of 'Kid' long ago, but seemed to be fighting with everything he had to take it back.

Her eyes stung and for the first time since her days being shipped back and forth from relative to relative; she felt the murky clouds that kept her heart emotionless and contained starting to dissipate completely. A tear broke through her defense and she suddenly shouted with anger, fear and frustration all once. "_Of course I want to live! I do! I want to fight for my stupid dream and prove that I'm not worthless to everyone who treated me that way! But if I do that…if I do that…"_ she was crying now and let her sentence dissolve in sobs.

If she did that, she would be going into some unknown world and nothing would change, would it? Wouldn't she be alone as always? Wouldn't she still have to struggle to survive, even harder than she did now?

The truth, she realized, was that she was scared.

Scared.

Scared to fight back. Scared to decided that she was worth something. Scared because she doubted that it could be done. Scared of the unknown that awaited her.

Her hands covered her face, trying to hide all the tears and sobs that were escaping. She felt stupid for crying – she hadn't cried in years, and surely had never cried in front of someone else before – but there she was, standing on the edge of the high school roof, crying her heart out in front of a complete stranger.

A hand, callused and scarred, grabbed her wrist and pulled her forward. Just as his words had pulled her away from her decision to kill herself, so had his actions. Luffy pulled her away from the ledge, and back onto the flat surface of the high school roof.

"Come with me then," he said with his grin audible in his voice, "You're just like the rest of us."

* * *

**So? Interesting? Decent? Horrible? You should tell me haha**

**Do you think i should keep this going?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow - I'm suprised this got so many reviews haha I'm glad you guys liked it. I thought about it, and realized that I could probably do a lot with what i've got here, so i'm gonna try to make this a full blown story :) So here's another chapter~!**

_Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, or any of the related characters  
Also, be warned, I have the bad habit of writing when i feel like it, so this means that there probably won't be schedualed updates lol sorry about that_

* * *

**Chapter 2:**

_How did it end up like this?_ Robin asked herself. She was in a dark and unfamiliar room, wearing borrowed baggy clothes, and sharing a queen sized bed with a complete stranger. _How did my night progress from gearing myself up to dive off the high school building to sleeping with a stranger?_

The answer was Luffy.

Robin glanced as the sleeping figure beside her. Its entire body was cocooned in a blanket and moving slowly and rhythmically with sleeping breaths. Robin just stared at the figure in wonder of her predicament and let her thoughts wander to just an hour or so earlier.

* * *

The night felt different once she got back on the ground. Somehow, it had turned from hopeless to…well, Robin wasn't quite sure yet. She still felt the numbness – it had been growing inside of her since a young age so it wouldn't be eradicated in just one night – but she could feel past it for once. She could see the shadows of her feelings just behind the fog. They were obscured and murky, but they were there, none the less.

Luffy walked slightly ahead of her, his callused hand still holding onto her wrist, as if he was afraid she would try to find another way to off herself if he didn't keep an eye on her.

She glanced at his hand with a blank expression. She didn't know how she should feel about someone touching her…usually it didn't happen unless she was the one doing the touching, or someone was trying to hurt her. Robin wasn't used to such casual contact and beneath the lessened numbness she could tell that she was confused by it. Was this normal? Did strangers really touch each other so easily?

Neither of them spoke as if not wanting to disturb the quiet night (or you could say morning because it was definitely past midnight), but every once in a while Robin would catch Luffy humming little snippets of an unfamiliar song. It seemed to be subconscious on his part so Robin didn't point it out to him.

He led her through a small chunk of town that was well known for being shady. There were lots of broken down houses with missing windows, graffiti sprayed or drawn on every once-blank surface, vacant lots filled with trash and abandoned furniture, cars sitting on cinderblocks, shops and stores with bars on all the windows and doors, and scraggly people either drunk or passed out in shadowy alleys or in the doorways of run down pubs and bars. This part of town was affectionately called the Harbor for reasons no one really understood. Since its beginning, this little section of town was always reserved for the poorest of people, and it hadn't gotten any better.

The Harbor was just as good a name as any, Robin thought vacantly. It was kinder than calling it a trash-heap, which was very close to what it was.

Finally Luffy stopped in front of a boarded up apartment building that rose four stories off the ground. From the sidewalk where the two stood, Robin could clearly see the yellow caution tape that hung off the door and red notices nailed onto the front boarded-up window that clearly meant that it was condemned. A sign out front read "Sunny-Go Apartments" in faded and chipped letters. It had been tagged by a few layers of graffiti, and stained by the weather. Overall the entire lot gave off a derelict and lonely feeling, and Robin couldn't help but wonder why in the world they'd stopped here of all places.

Luffy turned to her with his overly large grin, "This is our home."

Home.

That word caught her attention immediately. The warm way in which he said the small word made Robin believe that this was truly a home to him and not just a roof over his head. To him this building was that fabled place that held the mythical warm and fuzzy feelings waiting to greet him. A strange world where someone was expecting him to come back to.

Robin felt that she couldn't begin to understand how he was feeling at the exact moment he said "home" because as far as she could remember, she'd never had one. Everywhere she'd ever stayed had always just been a place that protected her from the perils of living out on the street in a cardboard box. Those places were always just walls and a roof to her. She was grateful for them – even the ones that came with people who didn't like her or treated her like trash – but she'd never been so fond of just a building as it seemed Luffy was.

A flicker of light caught Robin's attention.

A dark curtain fell back into place, after revealing the little second of dim light.

"Let's go – I'll show you how to get in," Luffy said, his smile still audible in his voice. He tugged on her wrist and pulled her to the left of the tall apartment building and towards an alleyway that separated it from a similarly run down building beside it. Robin gave a quick glance at the few buildings in the area and all of them seemed to be abandoned. No one would be there to notice them breaking into the condemned building, besides others like Luffy, it seemed, who had taken up residence in the forgotten and decrepit places.

The alley was dark and untouched by the yellow and sickly streetlight that flickered out of the many streetlamps that lined the road out front. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, and even then she still couldn't see much. She was forced to rely on Luffy's directions, as he still held her wrist and guided her into the thick darkness.

But suddenly his callused hand disappeared. Robin came to a sudden stop and strained her eyes to adjust faster so that she could see what was going on. Where did he go? Was he leaving her here?

She scolded herself for her panicked questions.

_Don't be stupid_, she told herself, _even if you did get abandoned here, you'd be perfectly fine. Don't get so worked up just because he let go of you. You didn't like being touched anyways._

"Where'd you go?" she asked the darkness.

A metallic screeching was her reply and she suddenly recognized the sound. She heard his flip-flopped feet hit the ground. Luffy gave an accomplished sigh and patted something that sent metallic vibrations out into the night, "Thing's all rusty – I'll have to have Franky do something with it."

"Fire escape," Robin said aloud. That was what the screeching noise was – a rusted fire escape being pulled down far enough to climb on.

"Yep," Luffy confirmed, "It doesn't reach all the way to the ground, so you'll have to pull yourself up for the first few steps."

Robin nodded to herself – she could do that. In fact, she had gotten quite good at using just her arms to get up far enough to finally get her feet to touch the first few rungs. It was a nice strength to have if you had the kind of life Robin did.

Luffy started first. She saw his faint shadowy form jump up and grab onto the second wrung of the ladder, and then start comically swinging his body from side to side to get enough momentum to grab onto the next step. Finally he got his feet onto the ladder and scurried up onto the first platform of the fire escape. "Your turn," he called down to her.

Again, Robin nodded – more to herself than to the boy – and jumped for the ladder. She was a good six inches taller than the boy so she was able to reach the third step up on her first try. She then moved her hands to the vertical sides of the ladder and shimmied upwards using the same back and forth motion to gain momentum. It was a technique she learned to use that was easier for her than trying to reach for the next step. It had taken a few failures to finally figure it out, but now she had the method down.

It took her only a short moment to get high enough for her feet to reach, and then she was up on the platform with Luffy.

She could almost feel the smile radiating from his mouth, "You've done that before."

"Once or twice," she said smoothly as she looked upward.

They started climbing, their steps sounding loud on the old metal. As they passed by the first few stories, Robin looked in the dusty windows along their path which hadn't been boarded up due to their height. Mostly the rooms were empty but for some deteriorated cushions, old newspapers and armies of dust bunnies. She was pretty sure there were cockroaches and other pests lurking in the stale darkness, but that wasn't uncommon for this part of town.

Finally, they reached the fourth floor, and Luffy walked to the window where Robin had seen the light just a few minutes ago. It was the window second closest to the street, and when they came to it Luffy hooked his fingers around the window's rim and slid it open. He quickly pushed aside the curtain and hopped through the opening. Once inside, he kept the curtain pulled back, granting Robin access.

She grabbed a hold of the window pane with her right hand and carefully stepped through the window, one long leg after the other.

The light inside was dim, but it created a warm atmosphere. The light came from a lamp in the opposite corner of the room that was just bright enough to let light reach even the far corners of the room. "You can stay here if you're worried about that guy finding you. They wouldn't think to look for you here."

I nodded and looked around at the room. It was a small living room with an open kitchen area in the far right corner. The furniture was cheap, but usable – a gray checkered couch and a mismatching brown recliner, a little TV set up on a wooden end table, a dining table with folding chairs set up around it – and the kitchen was much the same. There were three doors: one was supposed to be the front door, but it was blocked off by the couch, and Robin guessed the other two to be a bathroom and a bedroom.

"Is it really okay?" she asked. This also wasn't something she was used to – being shown kindness without being expected to give anything in return. So far, she'd had to earn everything she'd been given, and this time around it had put her in debt to Crocodile.

"_Shishishi_, of course – though you'll have to share the bed with Nami," Luffy laughed.

Robin was about to ask who this Nami person was when the bedroom door burst open.

"There you are, Luffy! You made me worry, you idiot!" A girl with short reddish-orange hair scolded as she stalked out of the bedroom. She was a slender girl, but still had curves in all the right places. She was donned in what appeared to be her pajamas: a short blue tank top and black exercise shorts. Robin thought she looked familiar, but that was to be expected if she was one of Luffy's crew of oddities.

Luffy gave his odd laugh, "Sorry Nami – I was at the school."

The redhead's brow creased, "Why?"

Luffy shrugged and plopped down in the recliner, "Doesn't matter – anyways, this is Robin!" Luffy pointed to the tall and dark haired girl standing quietly by the window.

Nami didn't seem to have noticed her until the raven-haired boy said something. She turned to the window and gave a small gasp, "Ah – sorry, I didn't see you there."

Robin shifted her weight and let the corners of her mouth twitch up into a smirky smile, "That's okay."

"You'll have to share your bed, Nami – she's gonna stay with us now," Luffy grinned. He pulled the lever on the side of the recliner and with a loud metallic _pop_, the chair shot back and opened up its foot rest.

"Alright then," Nami said uncertainly as she looked between Luffy and Robin.

"Sorry," Robin said calmly, her smirky smile still touching her lips, "This is all kind of sudden for me as well."

Nami gave a small laugh and walked a little closer to her new bedmate, "Don't worry about it – this happens with Luffy."

"Oi, Nami – where's Zoro and Chopper?" Luffy said as he looked curiously about the room, "At Franky's place?"

Nami shook her head, "No, they'll be back soon. I sent them to the drugstore really quick – I needed some things."

Footsteps could be heard tapping on the metal of the fire escape outside and Nami muttered, "Speak of the devil." Robin scooted away from the window so she couldn't be blocking anyone's pathway, and within seconds of hearing the footsteps, the black curtain was thrown open and a masculine figure stepped through the improvised front door, quickly followed by a smaller one.

The first and larger figure was a guy with dyed green hair and three earrings dangling from his left earlobe that jingled mutely every time he moved his head. He was tall and well muscled and had an angry looking scowl drawn on his face that looked quite natural on him. His face was sharp and seemed to amplify the intensity of his cold, calculating gray eyes.

Robin instantly recognized him – there probably wasn't a student in their school that didn't know the rumored "Demon of the Tenth Grade". His reputation for being a merciless, constantly angry thug was just as well known as Luffy's status as a grinning idiot. Though he was the same age as Robin, who would have technically been a senior this year if she hadn't started junior high a year late, Zoro had been held back twice. While normally being held back was solely a result of abysmal grades, there were various rumors floating about the school that said otherwise for Zoro's class situation. The first one that came to Robin's mind said that he threatened the Principal into keeping him in the tenth grade because he belonged to a gang and was using his high school years to recruit as many new members as possible.

Robin knew not to put much stock in rumors, but it was plain to see that the ones concerning his angry disposition were true. She watched as the "Demon" Zoro looked right to Nami who was standing just a few feet away from the window and directed his intense scowl on her, "Damn witch – you did that on purpose!"

Nami gave an innocent smile and asked sweetly, "What_ever _are you talking about?"

His scowl only deepened, "You gave the list to Chopper knowing that I wouldn't look at it until I got to the store!"

"Calm down, Zoro, that's nonsense," Nami defended with her same innocent voice, "I gave the list to Chopper because I knew he wouldn't lose it."

"Liar – and don't say I'd lose it!" Zoro threw a plastic bag at the redhead, "Take your damn girlie things and shut up."

Nami's smile turned almost fiendish, "Aww, are you embarrassed because I had you buy my tampons?"

Miraculously, Zoro's scowl got even deeper. He had a terribly furious look in his eye that made Robin give an involuntary shiver. Her slight movement caught the attention of the smaller figure which had, until this point, stayed out of Robin's sight on the other side of Zoro. She saw round brown eyes staring at her shyly from behind Zoro's body.

When Zoro looked about to say something, Nami continued, "Don't forget, Zoro – you still owe me quite a bit of money. You should just do what I tell you, unless you want to add another zero onto the end of your debt amount."

Robin could hear Zoro's teeth click together as he forced himself not to retaliate. He suddenly turned away from the redhead, finally facing Robin.

"Oh, yeah," Luffy suddenly added from his spot in the recliner, "That's Robin." He pointed to the aforementioned girl as she stood observantly to the side of the window and continued bluntly, "She's staying with us because someone's gonna try to kill her."

Zoro turned around a bit and seized Robin up with cold gray eyes. He let out a breath, "Another stray, huh?"

"Yep!" Luffy laughed.

Nami's eyes widened, "Wait, What? Someone's after her?"

Robin gave a reluctant nod as she looked back to the redhead, "My…previous boss, you could say. Luffy said I wouldn't be found here."

"Well, no one knows about Sunny-Go so that should be true – wow, so why exactly does this guy want you dead?" She asked, running a hand through her disheveled short hair.

"I didn't do my job," Robin said vaguely, not wanting to get into details. Frankly put, she was exhausted and a little surprised by her sudden change in surroundings. Suddenly there were a lot more people surrounding her in this strange and unexpected place.

Luffy stretched his arms and crossed them behind his head, "I said I'd beat the guy up for her." Luffy hummed as if trying to remember something and asked from his chair, "It was some guy named Crocodile, right?"

Nami's jaw dropped as Robin nodded in confirmation.

"Wait – hold up…Crocodile? _That_ Crocodile? The one that runs the whole friggen town?" Nami breathed. She took a few steps back and plopped down on the checkered couch.

Zoro seemed to be unfazed by the situation – or maybe the truth was that he didn't care about the newcomer's problem. He instead looked down to his right at the brown-eyed figure that had so far not shown itself to Robin. "Oi – get to bed, Chopper. I kept my end of the deal and let you come with me to the store."

The brown-eyed mystery person kept his eyes on Robin but nodded in response to Zoro's command. Slowly he pulled away from Zoro's side and shuffled towards the bathroom as quickly as he could. In the split second that he was visible to Robin, she noted that Chopper was a young boy – probably only twelve or so. He had chestnut brown hair to match his round eyes and a thin face. He had a very scrawny figure and seemed to have worry lines etched into his forehead.

Nami sighed and again, ran a hand through her hair. She stood up and looked to Robin, "Well, I'm sure you're tired. The bed is big enough for the both of us, so we can share. I have some extra sleep clothes you can use."

Robin nodded, "Thanks."

Robin followed the redhead into the bedroom and looked about the room as Nami dug through a closet for some clothes. The room was relatively small, dwarfed by the queen sized bed that took up most of the free space. The bedroom was much neater than the living room. The walls weren't so dirty, and the furniture matched a little better – the bed had a metal frame and the mattress was covered with flowery sheets and a plain purple blanket, curtains covering the window were also plain purple, a floor lamp in the corner was metal with a white lampshade. The closet was to the left of the room, but the sliding doors that should have been there were missing. Instead the closet was a wide and shallow cubby in the wall where lots of clothes were hanging. There was a small dresser placed inside, and that was what Nami was currently digging through.

The redhead tossed clothes onto the bed and rested her hands on her hips, "Those should be fine for a night – anyways, just make yourself at home. I'll get myself a separate blanket to use tonight," she gave a small laugh, "I'll probably end up stealing your half if we try to share."

"Thanks," Robin repeated. She took up the clothes that Nami had pulled out for her and started to change as the redhead overdramatically distracted herself with pulling a blanket out of the closet. Robin thought it was kind of funny how the redhead tried so.

"You can turn around now," Robin said with a faint wisp of a smile in her smooth voice. She had quickly pulled off her jeans, v-neck and zippered jacket and replaced them with the borrowed loose-fitting basketball shorts and a white t-shirt that was probably one of the guys'. Robin stifled a yawn and pulled back the purple comforter from the bed.

Nami switched off the light and in the dark, made her way to the other side of the bed. Quickly and without conversation the two girls settled themselves into their respective blankets and started to fall asleep.

Dirty yellow streetlight came in from the window, and gave Robin just enough light to look over at Nami and see the crown of her head poking out of the cocoon she made with her separate blanket. She wondered vaguely if the girl would be able to sleep with a stranger in her bed, and just let her thoughts wander aimlessly.

Things had changed so quickly for Robin since the sun set just a handful of hours ago, and an odd feeling told her that this was only the beginning. Strange people, strange places, strange territory – but the odd feeling told her that things weren't done changing yet.

She couldn't name this odd feeling, but it made her stomach feel oddly light and feathery. It definitely wasn't a bad feeling, but she wasn't sure if it was good either. While it slightly resembled curiosity, she knew that this was different. It was new and completely strange to her – a feeling that had so far remained dormant beneath the numbness of her heart.

"Maybe," she murmured sleepily to herself as she listened to her bedmate's sleeping breaths, "Maybe this is excitement."

* * *

**So? Interesting? Decent? Horrible? You should tell me lol**

**Thanks for reading~!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys :) Thanks for the reviews - i really appreciate it! To those of you who commented and said that the second chapter wasn't as good, I hope that this one is better lol the last chapter was really meant to start introducing the other characters and show more of the setting of the story. Anyways, I hope you like this new addition.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, nor the characters connected to it.**

* * *

Chapter 3:

She woke to an empty bed and the sounds of light bickering creeping in from beneath the closed bedroom door. Robin stared at the cracked and slightly crumbling ceiling as she absentmindedly listened to some small argument between Zoro and Nami. It didn't seem to be a major problem, but rather just an argument for argument's sake. The way the two went at it, made Robin speculate that this was just a part of their normal morning routine.

Robin slid out from beneath the blanket and sat upright with her legs draped off the side of the bed. She glanced out the window and saw a foggy white morning – more absorbent whiteness that seemed to suck the life out of the new day before it could even start.

Reality seemed to set in as her thoughts replayed last night. Robin ran a hand through her slightly tangled black hair as she realized her situation.

Crocodile was going to be angry – murderously so when he finds that she won't show up to their meeting that was scheduled for ten o'clock this very morning, and realizes that the person Robin was supposed to have killed last night was still breathing.

She thought back to three days ago – a Thursday evening – when Crocodile had called her into his office.

He ran his whole operation in the shadows of a popular casino that he ran and operated called Rain Dance. From the front, it looked like a legitimate place, full of gambling fun and fortune, but if you happened to step through the doors that said "private" you'd find the base of operations for the underbelly of the whole city.

She remembered walking through the casino with her usual blank expression, only mildly curious about what errand he'd have her run this time. The last one had been a simple message delivery to a man who thought to run against Crocodile's endorsed candidate for mayor. The job had included a small 'breaking and entering' and a little discussion over pulling out of the race. She had broken into the man's house in the dead of night and like a shadow, and crept into his bedroom. Robin had been asked to get her point across as strongly as possible and decided that startling him when he was most vulnerable was a good way to do it.

She watched the man quietly for a moment as he slept alone in his large bed, and analyzed her surroundings. The room was quite tidy for one that belonged to a widower and single father, and much too frilly, she thought. His teenage daughter must have been in charge of decorating it, Robin mused as she noticed the lacey bed skirt and alarmingly girly curtains, because he didn't seem the type to like lace or frills. In fact, in all the photos she'd seen of him – and even now as she watched him sleeping – he seemed very masculine and dominant. Even in photos he seemed to have an aura of power and intelligence…not the type of man to like lace.

At the moment, he was sleeping on his back with one arm bent up to rest on the pillow beside his head and the other stretched down and outward, half covered by his blanket. In his sleep, the blanket had slouched down to the middle of his shirtless stomach, revealing a chest of dark and curly chest hair and a decently fit midsection – he wasn't ripped, but he was much more in-shape than most politicians nowadays.

A smirk danced across Robin's lips as an idea came to her. Due to his more or less upright nature and air of power, she thought up the perfect method to get Mr. Crocodile's point across.

With light and graceful movements she eased herself up onto the edge of his bed and slowly crawled towards him. Despite her faint movements, the man slept soundly, unaware of the sudden awakening he'd receive in mere moments.

Robin aligned herself with his body and gently moved to straddle his waist.

He stirred slightly at her sudden weight, but didn't wake up.

She smirked instinctively as she leaned forward and suddenly pressed her elbows into his chest and rested her chin on her interlaced fingers, "Wake up, Mr. Nefetari."

He suddenly jerked himself out of sleep and tried to sit up out of instinct, but Robin's elbows stabbing into his chest forced him to stay down. He was probably strong enough to throw her off of his body, but Robin had the advantage of surprise.

His eyes widened, and even in the moonlit darkness she could see how clear and blue his startled eyes were. While he was still in a shocked silence, Robin spoke with her jazzy voice, "Good evening, Mr. Nefetari." She kept up her smirk and waited for him to finally speak.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked loudly, still too shocked to struggle and throw her away.

"Now, now, Mr. Politician – you might want to lower your voice…unless you don't mind if your daughter see's us like this," Robin shifted her head so that it rested solely in the palm of her left hand and placed her right hand face down on Mr. Nefetari's chest.

His brow creased and his hand knocked hers off of his bare chest, "Answer me – who are you?" He asked forcefully, in a much lower voice.

"Much better – but I'm afraid, Mr. Politician, that you're asking the wrong question. It doesn't matter who I am, but rather, who sent me," Robin replied slyly. She sat up straight, while still straddling his waist and let her hands shift to rest on her thighs.

"So who sent you, then?" he asked, irritation very audible in his voice.

Robin kept up her smirk, "You see, Mr. Politician, my boss is a very powerful man. He's the one who runs this whole town, you see? And this boss of mine sent me to persuade you to pull out of the election for Mayor. He's very adamant that your opponent be the victor, and told me to use any measure necessary to convince you to drop out."

Mr. Nefetari swallowed loudly, "You're one of _his_ people aren't you…one of Crocodile's men."

"You are very correct, Mr. Politician," Robin said smoothly. She moved her hands from her thighs to his stomach, where her long fingers traced shapeless designs on his pale skin, "but saying I'm just one of his men, is quite rude. I'm one of Mr. Crocodile's trusted officers – and I am very good at my job."

His fists clenched, "No matter what you say, you won't get me to drop out, so you should just go and tell your boss to screw off. Even if you hurt me, it won't change my mind."

"Hmm, but it wasn't you I was planning to hurt," Robin said with an eerie chill in her voice.

Mr. Nefetari immediately froze, and his eyes turned very dark, "If you even think of laying a hand on my daughter, I'll –"

"Oh, bur Mr. Politician, I've already thought about it. Very thoroughly too – but I'm afraid that it wouldn't be me in charge of hurting her if my boss sent out the order. She'd be very lucky if it were me though – I'm much more gentle than Mr. Crocodile's other officers."

Robin felt the rage boiling up inside of him, but he didn't say a word to the black-haired bed intruder. He was caught and he knew it. He wouldn't dare put his daughter in danger – especially if he knew the type of men that Crocodile would normally send to do the job.

She suddenly leaned over Mr. Nefetari's body and let her mouth hover just millimeters away from his left ear. She could feel his anger and fear for his daughter radiating off of him along with his body heat as she floated above him. She whispered into his ear, "So, Mr. Nefetari, it would be advantageous to both you and your beloved daughter if you dropped out of the election. You have two days to publicly announce your withdrawal – if you still refuse, be ready for the consequences."

With one fluid motion, before Mr. Nefetari could even blink, Robin leapt gracefully off the bed and disappeared soundlessly from the bedroom. Without making any noise, Robin left the politician's house the way she had broken in – through a window she'd unlocked and opened. She moved like a shadow and was sure that Mr. Nefetari heard nothing after losing sight of her.

She'd given the man two days, as Crocodile had instructed.

And three days later, Robin was being called into Mr. Crocodile's office.

She walked down a wide hallway, towards two extravagant double doors that would open into Crocodile's personal office. There were no guards outside the rooms like you'd expect because there was no need. Crocodile didn't waste his manpower on useless positions like bodyguards – he was powerful and strong enough to deal with any intruder himself.

Robin placed a hand on the finely sanded and carved oak doors and pushed them inward. She was expected for her meeting and therefore had no reason to knock.

She slid through the opening of the doors and let them fall shut behind her. As always, the room was darkly lit and the air was heavy with the stench of acrid cigar smoke. The office was a large, high ceilinged room, decorated with sparse furniture and earth tones.

Robin heard a muted _creak_, and looked to the left to see Mr. Crocodile turning his tall-backed desk chair to face her. Even sitting down he cut a massive figure. He was a broad shouldered, well-muscled man that when standing towered above even her, who was much taller than was normal for her age of seventeen. He had pitch black hair that was slicked back and cut so that it stopped at the base of his neck, intimidating brown eyes that looked almost black in the dim light of his office, and a terrible scar running across his face that started about an inch beneath one eye, traveled across the bridge of his nose, and stretched past his second eye. But the most fearsome thing about the terrible man was the bronze-plated steel hook standing in place of his left hand. If it weren't for his expensive Italian suits and thick fur-lined coat, he would give off the aura of a pirate in a fairytale.

"Nicco Robin," he said using her full street name, "You're late."

Robin let her unfazed smirk grace her lips, "Not terribly." She walked with long strides towards his desk. As she reached it, she ignored the chair on the other side of it and instead sat on the corner closest to him. She crossed one leg over the other and looked to her boss, "You wanted to see me?"

Crocodile blew thick smoke out from the side of his mouth, aimed for Robin's face. She closed her eyes to keep the smoke from stinging her eyes, but otherwise didn't respond – he knew that she didn't like the smell of cigars, and she knew that he liked to try and draw out a reaction from her. "I did. Have you been paying attention to the news?"

Robin shook her head and replied, "I don't bother with the local channels."

"Well, it seems that our friend Mr. Cobra Nefetari hasn't withdrawn from the election yet. He appears to have ignored my message. Maybe you weren't convincing enough."

Robin's smirk lessened, "He must not be as intelligent as he looks."

Crocodile gave a deep and slow laugh, "Even your insults are irritatingly polite."

Robin ignored his laughed statement and continued, "If Mr. Nefetari is left in the election, he'll definitely win the majority. I'm afraid our Mr. Galdino isn't as popular amongst the people. Will you send someone to give a more physical message?"

Crocodile chewed on the end of his cigar and inhaled a deep breath. He picked up a photo from his desk that had previously been lying face down and after letting out another cloud of bitter smoke, held it out for Robin to take. "Go after the daughter this time."

Robin took the picture between two slender fingers and held it up to observe. The girl was thin and very pretty as she smiled for the camera. It was a school photo, but even so, it came out very nice. Robin could see certain features in her face that resembled her father, Mr. Nefetari, and noted the strange light blue color of her long hair. For being such a polite looking politician's daughter, blue wasn't exactly the color you'd expect.

Robin's blue eyes flickered back to Mr. Crocodile, "What level of damage do you want?"

Crocodile broke out into a cold and toothy smile, and his deadly dark eyes sent icy tingles down Robin's spine. He shook his head slightly from side to side, "I want you to kill her."

Robin's emotionless face didn't betray her, but her insides started completely freezing over as her mind was sent into flustered thoughts.

Kill? He wanted her to kill the girl?

She'd be perfectly happy to rough her up and break a few of her bones, but kill? Robin had never killed anyone before. She'd stabbed, and shot, and maimed a few people over the years, but that had never resulted in murder.

But despite her objection to the killing, she didn't show her discomfort. "Understood," Robin replied.

"I don't care how you do it, but I want it done on Saturday night."

Robin nodded but stayed perfectly still. Despite being more confident and bold in Crocodile's presence than others would dare to be, she wasn't stupid enough to leave until he permitted it.

Crocodile exhaled another cloud of smoke in Robin's face and stated, "You've never killed anyone before, have you, Nicco Robin."

Robin closed her eyes against the smoke and shook her head, "Not that I'm aware of."

He gave another slow and drawn out laugh that made Robin want to shiver, "If you pull this off as well as you do everything else, there might just be a higher position for you when you get back." He gave a dismissing wave of his hook and nodded towards the door. "Meet me here at 10 on Sunday morning."

Robin nodded and stood up from the corner of the desk. She made her way towards the intricate double doors, and as her hand touched the cold metal handle to pull it open, Crocodile spoke, "Don't disappoint me, Nicco Robin. I don't accept failures."

Even now as she sat on the edge of her borrowed bed in a condemned apartment building, she could remember the weight of his words. Despite being a heartless and emotionless soldier that had always done as he commanded without fail, he somehow knew that she was reluctant to kill. Despite being cold and mechanical in her work, he knew that she'd always taken care to leave her targets breathing.

He saw her reluctance and warned her not to disobey his order.

And yet, that was exactly what she'd done.

She'd disobeyed and the consequences were drawing near.

Robin looked out the window once again and was still greeted with the same white fog that blocked out the rest of the world. It seemed to isolate her in the rundown bedroom and separate her from everything else.

How the hell was she going to get out of this one? It would only be a matter of time before Crocodile was able to find her – and now that she was accepting help from others, it would be more than just her life taken by his hand…or hook depending on how brutal he felt like being. She could imagine all too well what Crocodile would do once he found her, and it wasn't something to look forward to. Her only real option of escape from punishment had been to end it herself…but that hadn't quite worked out as she had planned.

A knock on the door seemed to construct a bridge that connected her isolated room to the rest of the universe and broke her train of thought.

"Come in," she spoke out calmly despite the unease she was feeling concerning her sure-to-be limited future.

The redhead poked her head in the room as she cracked open the door. She gave a small smile, "Good, you're awake. We're going to go get breakfast and meet up with the rest of the crew…Luffy said he wanted to talk about something important, so I'm guessing it has to do with your situation."

Robin nodded and stood up, "I'll be out in a minute."

Nami's head disappeared and the door closed, once again leaving Robin alone.

Robin finally got to her feet after being lost in thought for a good twenty minutes or so, and started to pull off the borrowed pajamas. She changed back into her jeans, purple v-neck shirt, and plain black bomber jacket, and combed her hair with her fingers so that it wasn't as tousled and messy.

As soon as she stepped out of the bedroom, she saw Luffy jump to his feet from a chair at the card table pushed into the corner of the room and start to stretch out his body by touching his toes. "Alright," he said happily, "Let's go eat!"

Nami, who'd been sitting in the open window, carefully moved her legs from inside the room to outside and started walking down the platform to the stairs. Luffy climbed out next, followed by Robin. She turned back, expecting to see Zoro and the young boy from last night following behind her, but found that the apartment was empty. She faced forward again and asked curiously, "Where are the other two?"

Nami let Luffy start down the stairs of the fire escape first so that she could answer, "They went to the building's basement to shut off the generator and water valve. Since the apartment building is condemned, it technically shouldn't have power or running water, but we've got a friend who fixed up the wiring and generator for us and worked on the plumbing so we could have hot water. We have to turn it off whenever we leave though so that we don't draw attention to the place."

Robin nodded and smirked, "Sneaky."

"It's pretty handy – we're lucky that Franky knows a lot about construction and electrics. It's really thanks to him that we're able to live here – when Luffy first found the place, it was pretty uninhabitable." Nami and Robin started down the old metal stairs with echoing steps. They looked and saw Luffy already on the ground stretching once again as he waited for the two of them to catch up.

"How many others are we going to meet?" Robin asked, as she came first to the fire escape ladder that hung down, missing the ground by about five feet or so. She'd heard both her and Luffy mention a few other names, but was curious to know how many more people she might be dragging into her business with Crocodile.

Nami hummed as she waited for Robin to climb down, "Well, besides the four of us that you've already met, there are four other guys. I'd try to prepare you for meeting them but, anything I say will probably scare you off." She gave a small laugh that said _I'm joking, but not really_ and started her decent down the rusted ladder after Robin's feet touched the ground.

Once all three were on the ground they took off for a place Luffy only referred to as "Sanji's", leaving Zoro and the young brown-eyed boy to catch up to them later.

* * *

**Interesting? Decent? Horrible? You should tell me lol **

**Thanks for reading!**

****Note: I also want to say that in future chapters, a few characters are going to be out of character or described differently due to the fact that talking doctor reindeer and 70-year-old living skeletons with afros don't exist outside of the OP-verse. As this is an AU a few characters will be changed a bit - Chopper mostly because I'm making him a little younger than usual and giving him a new back story to make sense with the setting - but i'm going to tie in as much of his OP personality as possible even with the changes i'm going to make. lol alright that's it, I'll stop blathering on now****


End file.
